This week on

The Emmy Award-winning “CBS News Sunday Morning” is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. “Sunday Morning” also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.)
Hosted by Jane Pauley.
COVER STORY: Writing the first draft of President Biden’s legacy
President Biden leaves office this week with significant legislative and policy achievements, the effects of which may not be seen for years. But in spite of those successes, Biden’s legacy likely rests largely in the hands of his successor: Donald Trump. CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes talks with Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, about how history will remember Joe Biden.
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ALMANAC: September 19
“Sunday Morning” looks back at historical events on this date.
© 2023 Tamara de Lempicka Estate, LLC/ADAGP, Paris/ARS, NY. Digital image © CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY.
ART: Tamara de Lempicka’s vibrant life and art
Tamara de Lempicka (1894–1980), one of the giants of early 20th century modernism, is now the subject of the first-ever U.S. retrospective of her works. Correspondent Faith Salie visits the de Young Museum of San Francisco, to learn how Lempicka’s glamorous figurative paintings of the modern woman played an important role in defining the aesthetic of Art Deco, and why Lempicka herself is so little-known compared to other modern masters.
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CBS News
TV: Inside “Beyond the Gates,” TV’s newest soap opera
In the world of daytime network TV, only three long-running soap operas have survived. But in February, CBS is launching a new one: “Beyond the Gates,” which traces a prominent African American family living in a gated community outside of Washington, D.C. Correspondent Nancy Giles goes behind the scenes of the new series, and talks with the creatives and actors who say you’ve never seen a soap like this.
To watch a teaser for “Beyond the Gates” click on the video player below:
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- “Beyond the Gates” debuts February 24 on CBS and Paramount+
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BOOKS: Perle Mesta, the renowned social queen of Washington
The widow of a steel magnate, socialite Perle Mesta (1998-1975) used her fortune to host inclusive dinner parties in Washington, D.C., becoming known as “The Hostess with the Mostes’ on the Ball” (after Irving Berlin celebrated her in the musical, “Call Me Madam”). Mesta became one of the most famous women in the world, and her influence – on politics and on the social scene – is examined by Meryl Gordon in her new biography, “The Woman Who Knew Everyone.” CBS News’ Erin Moriarty talks with Gordon; with 99-year-old former journalist Marie Ridder, who attended some of Mesta’s parties; and with Washington insider Sally Quinn, who doubts that any power broker today could pull off what Mesta once did so brilliantly: getting Democrats and Republicans to sit down at a dinner table and see eye-to-eye.
READ AN EXCERPT: “The Woman Who Knew Everyone” by Meryl Gordon
READ AN EXCERPT: “The Party: A Guide to Adventurous Entertaining” by Sally Quinn
In her 1997 book, the Washington Post columnist writes about the social imperatives for entertaining, and how the role of host and hostess in the nation’s political capital has remained vitally important.
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PASSAGE: In memoriam
“Sunday Morning” remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week.
Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images
U.S.: Climate scientist: “There’s no place that’s safe”
In 2022, climate scientist Peter Kalmus moved his family out of Altadena, California, to North Carolina, to a place he hoped would be “less fiery.” His old house burned to the ground in last week’s wildfires, while North Carolina suffered the effects of Hurricane Helene last fall. Kalmus tells correspondent Tracy Smith he hopes people are finally listening to warnings about climate change. Smith also talks with amateur meteorologist Edgar McGregor, who warned his fellow Altadena residents to get out as the flames approached; and with John Vaillant, author of “Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World.”
READ AN EXCERPT: “Fire Weather” by John Vaillant
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HARTMAN: Color commentary
U.S.: Heroes: Steve Guttenberg on assisting during the Palisades wildfire, and caring for his personal hero
As the Palisades Fire exploded, Steve Guttenberg, one of the biggest movie stars of the 1980s and ’90s, was moving abandoned cars so emergency vehicles could get through. Six sleepless days later, and with much of his hometown reduced to ruins, he was still there to help protect his and his neighbors’ homes. He spoke with CBS News contributor Lisa Ling about the importance of making a difference; and about caring for his late father, Stanley, whom he calls his “anchor,” and whom he writes about in the book “Time to Thank: Caregiving for My Hero.”
READ AN EXCERPT: “Time to Thank: Caregiving for My Hero” by Steve Guttenberg
In his memoir the actor writes of his father and the relationship they shared, through their final years together, when Guttenberg dedicated himself to becoming a caregiver after his dad was diagnosed with kidney failure.
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GALLERY: Images of loss
Aude Guerrucci/Pool via Bloomberg
POLITICS: Trump ally says first 100 days will be “shock and awe”
President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House is the culmination of a political comeback that many in both parties believed would never happen. Now, Trump is promising swift action despite paper-thin GOP majorities in Congress. CBS News chief election & campaign correspondent Robert Costa talks with Republican Senator Jim Banks, a staunch Trump ally, and Independent Senator Bernie Sanders about what to expect in the second Trump administration.
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COMMENTARY: What might President Biden’s legacy be?
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley looks at the considerable, often heroic achievements of the administration of Joe Biden, and at the mistakes that may color historians’ view of his presidency, as Donald Trump – a man Biden warned is a threat to democracy – re-enters the White House.
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NATURE: TBD
WEB EXCLUSIVES:
FROM THE ARCHIVES: David Lynch on Transcendental Meditation (YouTube Video)
Director David Lynch, renowned for such visionary and surreal works as “Blue Velvet,” “Twin Peaks” and “Mulholland Drive,” died on January 16, 2025, at age 78. A longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (or TM), and founder of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, he spoke in 2016 with “Sunday Morning” correspondent Mo Rocca about the effects of TM. Rocca also visited a Los Angeles school, where Lynch guided students on the benefits of meditation. [From a report that originally aired January 3, 2016.]
FROM THE ARCHIVES: A visit with “Mr. Baseball” Bob Uecker (Video)
Milwaukee Brewers announcer Bob Uecker died Thursday. January 16, at the age of 90. In this 2024 profile by “60 Minutes” correspondent Jon Wertheim, Uecker talked about his love for baseball, and how it has manifested in his adjacent careers as actor, commercial pitchman, and TV talk show guest.
The Emmy Award-winning “CBS News Sunday Morning” is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison.
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